NBA’s new proposition a wrong step in right direction
By Ethan Becker
The problem
As previously stated, the problem is television ratings. The NBA has always ranked lower than the NFL and this season it has gotten to the point where they’re being beaten by NASCAR and NCAA men’s basketball, while the NHL are not too far behind in ratings.
Now, there could be a number of reasons for this problem.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban blames cord-cutting and the fact that all televised NBA games are on cable, whereas Fox Sports 1’s Colin Cowherd points to a lack of competition from the East Coast teams, but that doesn’t explain the dying Golden State Warriors, who used to be one of the most exciting teams to watch and now just have painful games.
Of course, another reason is that NBA fans worldwide were dying to see Zion Williamson dominate the NBA, but it’s December and he has yet to play a regular season game.
In reality, all of these are probably true, except for maybe Cowherd’s claims about the lack of competition from the Eastern Conference, as the East has long been a weaker conference (if anything it’s the strongest it has been since Jordan’s second retirement), but the NBA is having unprecedented ratings drops.
Whatever the cause for the problem is, Silver had his solution. Unfortunately, a lack of content was not a reason for ratings drops.